SANTA CRUZ - Just hours after they began deliberations, jurors found a Felton man guilty of second-degree murder for the death of his live-in girlfriend.

Richard Arthur Chavez, 43, struck Deanna Dudley in the head five times with a heavy flashlight during an alcohol-fueled fight over watching the Winter Olympics on Feb. 28, 2010.

Defense attorney Mark Briscoe argued that Dudley, 37, was an alcoholic with a violent temper, and that she had come at Chavez with the flashlight first. He didn't dispute Chavez hit Dudley in the head, but he said the act didn't constitute murder.

Briscoe said Tuesday he was "a little baffled" by how quickly the jurors reached a verdict.

"I'm disappointed," he said. "I wish the jury had deliberated a little longer but this is why we have a jury system."

Prosecutors had pushed for a first-degree murder conviction, contending Chavez intended to kill Dudley, said Jeff Rosell and Michael Gilman of the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office.

Briscoe and fellow public defender Anthony Robinson had argued that the case was never one of first-degree murder, which requires evidence of aforethought and malice. Jurors were allowed to consider first- or second-degree murder as well as manslaughter.

"The ultimate decision here really was between manslaughter and second-degree murder," Briscoe said.

Rosell and Gilman painted Chavez as a substance abuser who had been violent with women he was involved with in the past.

"We're very pleased with the verdict and we're very thankful to the jury for their hard work," Gilman said, noting the length of trial.

Emergency personnel found Dudley lying in a small closet of the couple's bedroom in the Felton home they had recently moved to. Her head was covered in blood, and blood splattered the walls as well as furniture in the closet. She and Chavez had been close friends for years before becoming romantically involved in the months before her death.

Closing arguments in the trial, which began in mid-December, finished Friday and the court was closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

At a court hearing Wednesday, Chavez will either admit to having served a prior prison sentence or Judge Stephen Siegel will determine whether to allow it in for sentencing purposes. Chavez served prison time for previous burglary and vehicle theft convictions, Gilman said. A sentencing date also will be set Wednesday.